Biological novel… Why not?

In the last number of Nature Methods, the editorial talks about a curious topic: biology in novel. Biologists become characters and their dilemmas, scientific and ethical problems and every-day stories are the main topics of numerous books; perhaps, this strange and interesting kind of literature could help to destroy the idea of biologist like a crazy scientist or a mouse always closed in his lab-cage.

Everyone that works in lab has a lot of amazing stories to tell and intrigues and mysteries are often associated to publications, specially in really famous journals. Love and jealousy arise between benches, as well as data manipulation to obtain Nobel prize results, crucial ethical problem to solve before starting some experiment or intense intellectual relationship are often mentioned during scientist discussion: all these aspects of scientific life could become obvious topics for a “biological” novel. Some times, reading about ourselves could have a cathartic effect: so, during the summer it could be interesting for scientists reading these books in order to acquire an external point of view of their lives and, maybe, enjoy for all the problems that usually encounter in their work. So good reading! The website where you can find these books is www.lablit.com.